


no emblem is so common as the heart

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: F/M, Humor, Letters, Romance, Season 3 that never was, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29463030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: Anne Hastings had received a vinegar Valentine from "an admirer" and Emma Green a miraculous nosegay that could survive a Virginia February. Jed Foster had no such expectations and it showed in his voice, his sharp gestures and the dark look in his dark eyes.
Relationships: Emma Green/Henry Hopkins, Jedediah "Jed" Foster & Henry Hopkins, Jedediah "Jed" Foster/Mary Phinney, Matron Brannan & Jed Foster
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	no emblem is so common as the heart

“Seems you miss her worse since you married her,” Matron said without any other greeting. It was fair enough, as he’d an expression dark as a thundercloud the whole forenoon, a fact Miss Hastings was quick to inform him of as soon as he’d closed Private Bishop’s incision. The remark, delivered with Anne’s usual acidity, had done nothing to lift his spirits, though she’d begun by telling him to cheer up because there was a pork roast for their dinner and that was close enough to the infernal Spanferkel they’d all made so much of. Henry, beginning to be happy again, had offered a smile with a game of chess but Jed had waved him off, having noticed the pink sash Miss Green wore beneath her pinafore and the matching roses in her cheeks. Jed sat alone in the officers’ parlor, staring at the fire, wishing to be startled by a slender hand laid on his shoulder, one with a gold wedding band he’d had engraved _my most Beloved_.

“She’d be the first to tell me to mend my ways and be patient,” Jed said.

“She’d never waste her time telling you that,” Matron countered. “If she were here, she’d be too busy and too sensible for it.”

 _If she were here…_ But Mary wasn’t, he’d left her back in Boston with her aunt, continuing to recover from her desperate illness, the fever that still troubled her. They’d married before his furlough was up, a small ceremony in her aunt’s sunny sitting room, but they had both known she was not well enough to make the journey back to Alexandria, even if he’d had a proper house leased and servants enough to care for an ailing mistress. Perhaps in the spring, she’d be something like her former self, something near enough as Mary Foster to Mary von Olnhausen that she could hazard the train trip without risking her life. Jed knew he ought to be satisfied that they’d married, that she was safe and healing in Boston, with her aunt to look after her and his friend Jonathan Harris supervising her treatment; he had a lock of her hair and the picture Lisette had left and memories of her parting kiss. He ought to be satisfied.

“She’s better where she is,” he replied.

“Just so,” Matron nodded, giving him a keen glance that held what was rarest: her approval. “She’s never forgotten you though, so you might leave off yer grimacing like a po-faced, liverish hoddypeak.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“This came in the post for you and that’s her fine hand, ain’t it?” Matron held out a well-traveled envelope with his name Dr. Jedediah Foster in Mary’s carefully elegant cursive. “You didn’t think she’d leave you wanting on Saint Valentine’s Day?”

“No, thank you,” he said, shaking his head, eager to open the letter and read what Mary had written. It would be more polite to wait until the older woman had left or at least to make some further attempt at conversation, but manners were beyond him and Matron chuckled.

“I’ve no desire to read your billet-doux. Mind it puts you in a better humor, no sulking, boyo,” she said, walking out of the room and closing the door behind her. She might as well have left on a gold of cloud, carried off by Zeus himself for all the notice Jed took. His attention was entirely captured by a brightly colored card, with gilded lace and delicately painted idylls, the faint scent of neroli and bergamot as if he’d kissed the inside of her wrist and a note she’d tucked in with it.

> “My dear husband,
> 
> I am in the greatest hopes that this letter arrives when I wish it, on Saint Valentine’s Day, so that you will have this smallest token of my most fond affection. I shall send a longer missive with all our news and Dr. Harris’s latest pronouncements by the week’s end, but this shorter message must suffice as explanation for the card it accompanies—my countrywoman allows a notable degree of latitude regarding the verse, but you must know that there is not one which would convey all my heart holds for you, Jedediah.
> 
> Most affectionately and faithfully yours,  
>  Mary”

When a quarter of an hour later, Dr. Hale complained that Dr. Foster must have finished off the last of the roast as nothing else could account for the man’s look of undeserved satisfaction, Matron didn’t argue, didn’t send to the kitchen for the last slice off the joint, but gave Byron a larger piece of dried apple pie and an extra lump of sugar in his coffee. Jed Foster, for once, was content.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Charles Lamb.
> 
> Esther Howland (1828–1904) was an artist and businesswoman who was responsible for popularizing Valentine's Day greeting cards in America. Howland graduated from Mount Holyoke College (then Mount Holyoke Women's Seminary) in 1847, just 10 years after its opening. Though Mount Holyoke did not celebrate Saint Valentine's Day, students often secretly exchanged poems elaborately scrawled on sheets of paper. Her valentines became renowned throughout the United States and she was called "The Mother of the American Valentine." Due to her cards being shipped all over the country her business eventually grossed over $100,000 per year, a considerable sum for that time, and she eventually sold the business to George Whitney in 1880 in order to take care of her sick father.


End file.
